My Preconceptions About MSC Food

Before I first cruised with MSC I was a little apprehensive.

I had read a lot of reviews about the food which were less than complimentary.

Once onboard I enjoyed the food. I didn’t experience any of the bad things that I had read about online.

MSC food is certainly more ‘Mediterranean’ than I am used to eating at home – but that’s kind of to be expected from an Italian company cruising around the Med!

Where Did We Eat?

Main Restaurant

For the majority of our evening meals, we ate in the Main Restaurant.

Our assigned main restaurant was called L’Olivo Doro.

The actual Restaurant was nice enough, but it definitely was nothing amazing.

Read my full MSC Meraviglia ship review below to learn more about all of the restaurants and bars onboard.

MSC Meraviglia Photo Guide (Complete Tour)

Buffet

We also ate a number of lunches in the buffet, but never ate in the buffet for dinner.

We often grabbed a few evening snacks from here before bed. I really appreciated the buffet being open later than 9 p.m.

I cruised on Royal Caribbean recently and the fact that the buffet closed at 9 pm every day was really annoying.

Butchers Cut (Speciality Restaurant at an Extra Charge)

Butchers Cut is a speciality restaurant and we ate here twice for free!

We matched our NCL Platinum Latitudes Loyalty Status to MSC’s Voyagers Black Loyalty Status and this gave us a free meal for two in a speciality restaurant.

So, I took my brother to Butchers Cut, and a couple of nights later he took me!

Find out more about how to status match with MSC here:

MSC Status Match – What Is it And is it Worth Doing? A Step-by-Step Guide

MSC has now tightened up on this perk, and even if there are two black loyalty card status members in the cabin, you only get one speciality meal. It’s per cabin, not per cardholder.

There was not much of a view from this restaurant sadly.

It made me miss the waterfront from NCL ships… It was a gorgeous restaurant though and the staff were really nice.

The Food We Ate

Main Dining Room

The food in the main dining room was good.

The portions were not huge but I never found myself hungry. There is always an opportunity to get more food later when you are cruising – so I don’t feel small portions are a big problem.

We had a variety of meat dishes as well as some brilliant vegetarian and vegan options.

The food wasn’t the type I would usually eat at home, but I really liked that.

I do like to try new foods and a cruise is a perfect opportunity. All the photos below are of the main dishes – as you can see they aren’t the biggest…

The next photo is of our Christmas dinner. We boarded the Meraviglia on Christmas Day and disembarked on New Years Eve.

It wasn’t what I would call a traditional British Roast Turkey Christmas dinner…

I didn’t take many photos of the desserts because for me, they were just fruit. (I have a slight dairy intolerance.) Here’s a photo of my Dad’s dessert though – he said it was very nice.

The Buffet

There is a huge variety of food available in the buffet.

The majority seemed to be made up of pasta, pizza and bread but there was also a grill section and an “Ethnic Corner” which I enjoyed.

They had Hot Dogs and Burgers too.

I don’t eat much dairy but had no problem finding dairy-free options in the buffet.

The only problem I had was I couldn’t find any dairy-free desserts – but I am pretty used to that.

There was plenty of food in the buffet at breakfast time too.

This is what I chose to eat every day. I am a girl of simple tastes! Those little baguettes were incredible though. MSC makes really good bread!

Butchers Cut (Speciality Restaurant at an Extra Charge)

The food in Butchers Cut was really really good.

The portions were absolutely HUGE which made a change from the food in the main dining room.

The starters In Butchers Cut were definitely bigger than some of the main courses that I had had in the main dining room!

I had an amazing giant melted cookie for dessert. The fact that it was free made it taste even better!

The menu is absolutely huge. If you are eating for free as part of the Black Membership Perks, you need to order from the “dining experience” part of the menu – which we did.

Other Snacks Around The Ship

We spent quite a lot of time in the Sky Lounge watching the world go by.

On a number of occasions, they brought us some little snacks – tapas almost!

I’d love to tell you what these are, but I honestly don’t know. Even at the time of eating, I had no idea what they were…

Check out my full MSC Meraviglia ship tour below:

General Thoughts

I was never hungry onboard the MSC Meraviglia.

The food portions were smaller than I would have at home, and I certainly ate more vegetables than I would normally – but that definitely isn’t a bad thing!

If you are considering a cruise onboard the Meraviglia but are worried having read negative reviews online, I would strongly urge you to ignore those Negative Nellies and try MSC.

To check out more MSC Meraviglia menus click here.

Before You Go

I later took a very cheap Caribbean cruise on MSC Seaview. Find out exactly what I ate on that cruise, and what I thought of it here:

Everything I Ate on my MSC Cruise (Photos and Menus) – Food Review

I took some first-time cruiser friends on a budget-friendly MSC cruise from Southampton. Find out how we got on, and whether they were impressed in the post below:

MSC Cruise Review – in Europe (Food, Service, Entertainment and More)